The article discusses how Boylan has used vets vs. pups in his first 6 games and possible reasons why.
Warning: Many of you will become angry.
It appears Jim Boylan, a solid, knowledgeable basketball guy, has done well in going 4-2. But what's most interesting to me is to watch the way he has done it. It's something of the informal handbook for interim coaches.
I've seen it before, used most successfully by Jeff Van Gundy in New York and Lawrence Frank in New Jersey: Go to your go-to guys.
A coach generally loses his job when his best, or most important, players give up on him or lose enthusiasm. By most accounts, that seemed to be Ben Wallace and Deng, though the play of Kirk Hinrich and Gordon clearly was off too.
There's Sam again vaguely mentioning Wallace and Deng as the most disgruntled under Skiles. However, he says that Wallace and Deng seemed to "give up". Strange thing to say of Deng considering that at the time of Skiles' termination, Luol was the only consistent player on the team who had manage to effectively reproduce his level of play from the prior season.
What Boylan seems to have done is make a commitment to the regulars, even more so than Skiles did. It's what Van Gundy did when he replaced Don Nelson and what Frank did in succeeding Byron Scott. Patrick Ewing had rebelled against Nelson, and Jason Kidd against Scott.
"You owe it to yourself to coach your personality and your beliefs," Van Gundy said. "And then do the players have the innate basketball character that they'll give respect to the coaching position not for who is coaching but what it stands for?"
Here, it appeared Wallace had shut it down on Skiles, though he has been much more interested and involved since.
In the six games since Boylan has been coaching, every regular has played far more than he did under Skiles, and the kids off the bench have played less.
The stated idea has been to go with the veterans to save the season, but it's also a way to perhaps solidify a position. Boylan appears to be betting the regulars will produce better under him, enhancing his chances of maintaining the job.
Like many coaches before him, Skiles had taken out Wallace when trailing late or in close games because of his poor free-throw shooting. But Boylan has stuck with Wallace, who even made one free throw for the difference Saturday night against the Kings. Wallace is averaging 39.2 minutes per game under Boylan, about seven minutes more than under Skiles and 10 more minutes than in the last six under Skiles.
Joe Smith is up about seven minutes per game, Hinrich almost five, Deng about five, and Gordon is averaging more minutes under Boylan coming off the bench than he did starting under Skiles. Gordon is up more than three minutes per game compared to the last six games under Skiles.
Conversely, though Tyrus Thomas felt his benchings had become personal under Skiles, he's playing even less under Boylan and is averaging about three fewer minutes per game now than in the last six under Skiles. Joakim Noah is down more than two minutes, Thabo Sefolosha about four minutes and Aaron Gray about 10 minutes.
It's part of being in the uncertain position of interim coach.
Granted, these are purely Sam's musings, and I happen to disagree with his basic premise to an extent, but this falls squarely in line with what many of you believe is happening and, more importantly, why its happening.
